Which eyepiece is best for viewing planets

These are our eyepiece recommendations for some telescopes in various price and aperture ranges. Pick the one that is closest to your scope. Saturn is one of the most popular targets to observe in the Solar System. We all want to get the best view of its rings and moons.

Thanks to this, you can use high magnification eyepieces to observe Saturn, specially if you are lucky enough to find it on a night with clear skies. In the following table, you can find our recommended eyepieces for a few telescopes as an example. You can find the one most similar to your telescope, and you should get similar results with that eyepiece.

Experimenting with a Barlow lens to get to those magnifications might also help improve your results. Elena is a Canadian journalist and researcher. She has been looking at the sky for years and hopes to introduce more people to the wonderful hobby that is astronomy. What magnification do you need to view planets? Celestron Stereo Binocular Viewer. Check Price On Amazon.

Author Elena Stone Elena is a Canadian journalist and researcher. Plossl vs Kellner Eyepieces. November 10, The exact field of view you can get will vary based on the design of the eyepiece. Typically, wide-angle lenses range from 68 degrees up to degrees.

Barlow lenses are a unique accessory. This increases the magnification power. Most lenses offer twice the magnification power.

Owning a 2X Barlow lens gives you a bit more flexibility. Instead of having to stick to the magnification offered by an eyepiece, you can combine components to get the power you need.

Despite their simple appearance, eyepieces are complex accessories. Most contain several optical components just to deliver light from the focal plane to your eye. Focal refers to the length of space it takes the lens to diverge light onto a fixed point. The telescope and eyepiece focal length will determine how much magnification power the overall setup has.

Generally, short focal length eyepieces offer more magnifying power. The apparent field of view, also referred to as AFOV, is an important measurement that indicates what your eyepiece will show. Think about your very own eyes. Light is being collected from a wide arc, producing a truly wide-angle view of the world. Telescopes have to bend and manipulate light strategically to provide you with enough power to see distant objects.

Zoom eyepieces and orthoscopic models tend to have a lower apparent field of view. However, wide-angle options produce a more true field of view. Eye relief can directly affect comfort and how the image looks to you. You see, telescopes and eyepieces contain several optical components to deliver a final image, which is known as the exit pupil.

The distance between the last lens of the eyepiece and that image is referred to as the eye relief. Equipment with a long eye relief is more comfortable to view.

The glass in the eyepiece can vary quite a bit from manufacturer to manufacturer. On the lower end of the price spectrum, you might find cheaper glass or even plastic being used. The quality of the glass will affect the light, thus changing the final image. If you want the very best image possible, look for eyepieces that use treated glass. Coatings can reduce reflections and increase contrast. Achromatic eyepieces use a coating to reduce color issues and blurriness.

Best Telescope Eyepiece Reviews Celestron — 1. Orthoscopic Next up, we have orthoscopic lenses. For the average amateur astronomer though, this could be a perfect addition to your collection of the best eyepieces.

Another series of eyepieces worth checking out made by Explore Scientific is the 68 Degree series. These are more designed for getting wide angle shots, although you can still get some short mm variations too. It includes five different eyepieces; 6mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm and 32mm. This will give you a good variety of different magnifications to choose from.

Though color filters are definitely not a necessity, they can make it easier to pick out individual characteristics of planets. Obviously, the image quality is heavily dictated by your telescope, but an eyepiece can also help. If you want a full accessory kit for a good price, then it is probably a good idea to pick up something like this. For those new to astronomy in general, eyepieces and magnification can be one of the most confusing things to get to grips with.

So if you have a telescope with a focal length of mm, and you use a 10mm eyepiece on your telescope, this will give you a magnification of x. For example, if you have a telescope with an aperture of mm, then you should not go over x magnification with your telescope.

An eyepiece is known to be one of the easiest ways to make your telescope more powerful. Combining this with a Barlow lens is the best way to make your telescope more powerful without having to invest in a new one! We generally use the rule that your magnification should not be more than double your aperture if you want the ability to see the planets clearly. You also get a 2x Barlow lens, which is a nice addition given the longer focal lengths of the eyepieces in this set.

The 5 color filters are a great addition. With 5 colors to choose from, you should be able to pick out the details that interest you from most planets with ease.

Best Short Focal Length Eyepiece. Walmeck Astronomical Telescope Eyepiece. This eyepiece has a good light transmission and offers clear and crisp imaging. The Walmeck Astronomical Telescope Eyepiece is a perfect choice for anyone with a particularly low power telescope. With a 2. The field of view is 58o. This gives you a good view of the night sky, and this high level of magnification will let you see a large view across your target object.

The eye relief is quite large at 16mm, so this is a comfortable eyepiece for using even while wearing glasses. This is not the highest quality offering on this list. The eyepiece is a single coated variety. This means that it does have a much lower transmission than others on the list. However, it is still effective and is the best option for anyone who requires a very short focal length to reach their desired magnification.

Best 10mm Eyepiece. Orion Sirius Plossl Telescope Eyepiece. The Orion Sirius Plossl Telescope Eyepiece is a great choice for anyone who needs a slightly longer focal length to achieve their desired magnification. For instance, telescopes with a focal length of 2,mm would give good views of the planets with this eyepiece. The apparent field of view is around 52o. It provides a good quality viewing experience at a very reasonable price. However, Orion has managed to make one that is quite compatible with most styles of telescope.

So, even if you have a Maksutov-Cassegrain scope, you should get a good experience from this eyepiece. One of the main drawbacks of this eyepiece, though, is the eye relief. At only 6. Especially if you wear glasses. If it bothers you, it might be worth trying to view without your glasses as otherwise, this is a very nice eyepiece. Best Zoom Eyepiece. Celestron Zoom Eyepiece for Telescope.

You can easily change the focal length of this eyepiece by twisting the barrel to easily change the magnification without disturbing your scope. The Celestron Zoom Eyepiece is a great choice if you want to be able to change your magnification without having to switch eyepieces.

Rotating the barrel of the eyepiece lets you easily alter the focal length. The focal length range on this eyepiece is from mm. This does put it on the longer end of the eyepieces on this list. It is worth being aware that this is a cheaper zoom lens. It offers great value for money and can easily replace four standard eyepieces. However, it will require you to adjust the focus of your scope when you adjust the focal length of the eyepiece.